Monday, 10 July 2017

Circulating with SAIIPL, dotAfrica, ASA and Silverware

Several years ago the
irrepressible Dr Madelein Kleyn revived the South African Institute of
Intellectual Property Law’s newsletter – “IP Briefs”. Afro-IP is pleased to
announce that it will assist SAIIPL and Dr Kleyn disseminate the news through
the blog in a bid to make the information more accessible.

We start with this month’s
newsletter published just recently. In this issue Prof Karjiker provides his
perspective on Herbal Zone v Infitech, a triumvirate of talent from CIPC
(Sher-Muhammad Kahn, Christiaan Steyn and Warren Rossouw) unpack shape marks in
a comprehensive exposé, Chezanne Haigh
from Kisch IP takes a bite at the Kit Kat four finger decision, Darren Olivier provides
tips for franchising, Alessia del Bianco provides an in-house perspective on creative
IP management, Darren Margo is relaxed over the latest exchange control amendments,
and the editor contributes with a nifty piece on SME’s and IP. You can read
them all here.

---------

On Friday Afro-Buff stuck
his horn in it by recording that the world’s largest lithium battery may have
been destined for Jamestown, SA when in fact it is actually Jamestown, SA. Huh? ..
well the difference between them is roughly an ocean, one SA being in South Africa
and the other in Southern Australia.

“The post has since been corrected and I hope, unlike the Bell Pottinger apology, largely accepted” said the
red faced buffalo on Friday.

--------

News on the ASA seems to
be getting even better. Those companies supporting them that were listed on the
blog on Friday reflected the list of supporters on the ASA website. That page (on
their website) lists those supporters that have actually paid. Afro Leo now
understands that there are a whole heap more that have pledged but not yet
paid! That’s got to be good news. Remember if you want to lend them your
support, just send them a note here. C’mon IP firms, a fully functioning ASA is
good for you too.

----------

For those interested in the dotAfrica domain name space developments, Tuesday,
04 July 2017 was the start of .africa’s General Availability phase where anyone
can register .africa domains through Registrars listed here:
http://registry.africa/registrars/. You can find more information on that development here.

-----------

Finally, Afro-IP is
pleased to announce that unlike Liverpool (afraid so, Jeremy Speres), they have some
silverware in 2017. News just in is that this little community interested in spreading news and views on African intellectual property is ranked in the Top 100 IP blogs in the World. Considering that there are more blogs than impala in mating season these days, that is no mean feat.

Just remember, if you want to get involved, you can in a number of ways. You can contribute by sending us information to report, by commenting on the blog posts in the comment column, by submitting a guest post (ask for the style guide first), by becoming a regular contributor or by taking up one of the characters. Please just email us here.

CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Afro-IP was voted top 25 foreign and international legal blogs by LexisNexis, is listed on Managing Intellectual Property's guide to IP blogs worldwide, is listed on IPKat's blogroll, was nominated on Nigerian Law Intellectual Property Watch's guide to African IP resources, was voted in the World's Best IP blogs by BIP Counsels and in 2017 in the Top 100 IP Blogs on the Planet!